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12 Chapter 6
12 Chapter 6
CHAPTER - 6
GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE OF INDIAN ENGLISH
6.1 MORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES
The features, related to the formation and implementation of a morph, are known as
morphological features. Morphological features that may establish Indian English as a
distinguished variety are described under following grammatical categories:
• English language strictly follows Subject - Verb - Object (SVO) order, whereas
Hindi, generally, follows Subject – Object - Verb (SOV) order.
6.1.1.1 Case Markers: Markers bring meaning to the case without altering the word
to another one. Almost every human language has its own markers. In English
language, prepositions function as markers. English language also has case. “Case, in
English Grammar, is a name given to the relation which a noun [or a pronoun] has to
other word in the same sentence.”1 There are basically seven cases in English
grammar- the Nominative (Subject), the Genitive (possession), the Dative (Indirect
object), the Accusative (Direct Object), the Vocative (Direct address), the Locative
(Mentions place) and the Ablative (often used with a preposition). Ablative case
answers the questions: when? by what means? from what cause? where? from where?
in what manner? or how? The ablative case shows separation (from), instrumentality
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Most of the Indian languages have “Case” and relationship among parts of speech
mentioned by the case markers. But English has its functional realization mostly in
the passive case. Therefore, (Indian) learners often get confuse in the use of
prepositions. In Hindi case markers are post-positional. In English, the major sentence
constituents (subject, object, etc.) can usually be identified by their position in the
sentence. In Hindi, constituents may move around within the sentence without
disturbing the core meaning; For example, the following pair of sentences conveys the
same meaning; e.g.
In both Hindi sentences, because of the use of the case markers ne (ne – nominative)
and ko (ko – accusative), Ram is identified as a subject and Ravan as an object.
Therefore, even though Hindi language principally follows SOV pattern in its word-
order, use of correct case marker is a crucial part.
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Even in the Causative constructions of Hindi, ‘-aya’, ‘-vayaa’and ‘-aayaa’ suffixes are
implied to indicate towards secondary inspirator, these constructions also imply case
marker ‘ne’ and ‘plural oblique’ ‘–on’; e.g.
Their children made them laugh. = Unke bacchon ne unko / unhe hasaya.
Case markers are used according to the semantic relations and tense-aspect
information in suffixes. For example, if a clause has an object, and has a perfective
form, the subject usually requires the case marker ‘–ne’.
vichar-vimarsh kiya’
Thus, the combination of the suffix and semantic relation generates the right case
marker.
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Nominalization in English yields basically two verbal forms, ‘V-ing’ = (Gerund) and
‘to +V’ (marked infinitive)…. English shows a number of restrictions in the selection
of the gerundial v/s the infinitival nominal that are entirely absent in Hindi.2
Nominalization in Standard English generally introduces three types of situation:
6.1.1.3.1 Conditions that only permit infinitive forms; e.g.: They desire to go. (Use
of Gerund = V +ing is not suitable).
6.1.1.3.2 Conditions that permit only gerund forms; e.g. I enjoy driving. (Use of
infinitive =‘to +V’ won’t be suitable here)
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Noun Meaning
ii) “There’s a trickle of oil coming in from other small producer…” (Last Light) - Noun
iii) “These had been oiled and oiled” (The Shorter Novels of Charles Dickens, 636)-Verb
Such usages are also taken into consideration in Indian English; e.g.
Bank (verb, noun) - (to save, to collect; shore, a unit related esp. to money matters)
i) “It was the issue of bank nationalization.” (The Great Indian Novel, 346)
ii) “…king returned from a trip to the river bank…” (Ibid, 21)
iii) “Secondly, he banked on the Congress Muslims to protect them.” (Indian Political
Novel in English, 188)
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The process of nominalization including case markers is one of the most frequently
occurred phenomenons of Indian English. This is because Indian users are less direct
than British and American users. A few examples are given below:
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It has been monitored that in Indian English nominalization occurs little bit frequently
than the Standard English. This is so because Standard English is relatively direct than
Indian English; whereas, Indian English has an inclination for implying complex noun
forms, nouns formed on the basis of nominalization and verbial phrases. Indians also
form rather long sentences with various clauses, not patterns.
This tendency of most of the Indians cannot be marked as mistake for “Each
individual creates the system for his verbal behaviours so that they shall resemble
those of the group or groups with which from time to time he may wish to be
identified.”1 Though, generally, nominalization is found in the form of derivative
(formation of noun from verb or adjective), gerund or modification of the word.
Whenever derivatives occur, they include case markers along with them. Variations in
nominalization are evidently visible between Standard and Indian English because the
grammatical categories and relations can be described in language-independent
terms”2 To form and understand sentences of a language depends upon one’s
linguistic competence. Still in some cases, Indian English and Standard English
follow the same patterns of nominalization and inclusion of case markers.
6.1.2 Pronominalization
“The process or fact of using a pronoun instead of another sentence constituent (such
as a noun or noun phrase)”3 is termed as pronominalization. It is taken as a syntactic
process. Though, Indian English has been following British grammatical pattern, yet
the growing impact of American English cannot be ignored. Along with this, the
influence of Indian languages can also be traced, here and there, in Indian English.
6.1.2.1 English and Hindi Singular Pronoun: In Indian culture to show one’s
reverence for someone, plural form of pronoun is used not as a plural but Indian
‘honorfic singular third person pronoun’.
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Even, sometimes, in the Indian cultural context ‘they’ is often used as the third person
singular pronoun to express the attitude towards the addressee; e.g.
“Oh Mundu, ask them to give Sajani a sweet poora.” (The Silver Bangle,
Lajwanti and Other Stories, 111)
Pronoun “them’ is used on the analogy of one of the honorific Hindi pronoun
‘un se’. There are two Hindi third person pronouns for objective case: ‘Us-se’
for singular subject of general type and ‘Un-se’ for plural and singular honorific
subject.
ii) “We don’t know, sir. He’s been coughing for a while, but we didn’t know what
it was.” (The White Tiger, 42)
Here, the speaker uses ‘We’ instead of ‘I’, on the analogy of Hindi language. In
several dialects of Hindi, first person plural pronoun ‘Hum’ is very frequently
used instead of Hindi first person singular pronoun ‘Mai’.
iii) “Our school teacher was a big paan and spat man.” (The White Tiger, 29)
While narrating some past event the speaker uses ‘our’ for’ my’, on the analogy of
Hindi Pronoun ‘humare.’ This use of plural form presents honourific attachment
Hindi speakers frequently use Hum/ humne/ hamare/ humko etc. for Mai/
maine/mera/mere/mujhe etc.
Other than personal pronoun “Sometimes, Indian English speaker omits the reflexive
pronoun in context whereas in native usage it is considered obligatory. And they also
tend to prefer the reflexive pronoun where it is not necessary. Many Indian languages
do not have a one to one correspondence with the English reflexive. In most
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Dravidian languages the reflexive pronoun is realised in the third person only. In
English, there is a parallel system of personal pronoun; corresponding to those used
with the reflexive verbs.” 1
“‘Bairah.’
‘Sahib’s bed has not been laid yet. It is clouded and there might be rain. Would
huzoor like to sleep on the Verandha?’” (Train to Pakistan, 105)
The honorific words ‘Sahib’s’ and ‘huzoor’ are used instead of second person
pronoun of possession (your = ‘Aapka’) and second person subjective pronoun (You
= ‘Aap’). Hence, it is quite evident that also in Pronominalization, Indian English
remains little bit similar to Standard English but wherever it is the matter of any
specific Indian trait related to culture, manner, tradition or religion, Indianness sticks
to English; paving more concrete path for Indian English.
6.1.3 Inflection
The morphological aspect inflection is category specific. It does not bring any
deviation in the part of speech. “Inflection produces from the stem (or stem) of a
given lexeme all the word forms of that lexeme which occur in syntactically
determined environments.”2 On the basis of grammatical context, the types of
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variation that words under go, are termed as Inflection or Inflection Morphology. The
base word from which all inflection variant occur is known as a Lexeme. Lexeme
may be precisely defined as: ‘a base word which is used in the sense to be found in
dictionary, and to which all the possible structures of the word belong.’ Various
morphological processes, i.e. inflection, derivation etc., generally, function on
lexeme. Lexemes are bare and un-affixed forms of word. Among the various parts of
speech, inflection occurs mainly on noun, pronoun, adjective, verb and adverb.
6.1.3.1 Inflection: Category: Inflection is, generally, studied under two categories:
i) Regular Inflection: Use of suffix ‘–s’, ‘-ed’ at lexeme ending; e.g. books (noun),
reads (Verb), Chased (Verb) etc.
ii) Irregular Inflection: Use of suffix ‘-ies’, ‘-en’ etc. at lexeme ending; e.g. babies
(noun), oxen (Noun), Spoke (Verb) etc.
6.1.3.2 Patterns of Inflection: For the sake of distinction, lexemes (abstract kind of
words) are written in small capitals; and inflected forms of words are written in
italics. Though, Indian English generally follows Standard English patterns of
inflection yet some variations may be observed. In Indian English words of Indian
languages also get inflected as per the pattern of Standard English; e.g.
(Common Noun)
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(Proper Noun)
All the above given lexemes are taken from Hindi language but process of inflection
parallels to that of Standard English. This tendency has been occurring since the
languages i. e. English and Indian languages came into contact. In present times, it is
developing rapidly and is used frequently by the users of all around the globe. It is a
common feature in Hindi also. English words taken into use in Hindi are also
inflected in the same manner; e.g. TRAIN > TRAINĒ , CAR> CARĒ etc.
6.1.3.2.2 Pronoun Inflection: Pronoun also has its inflected forms as various other
pronouns related to the base/stem pronoun; e.g. he => his, she=> her etc. In Indian
English pronoun inflection may also occur but in some different Indian sense; e.g.
WE I, we
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Following extract also highlights the most common of the Indian tendencies of
inflection: e.g.
“…when you (Indian) use the plural pronoun, asked a woman hunter with short white
hair, does that mean that you are talking for all Indian people?” (Chancers: A Novel, 93)
6.1.3.2.3 Verb Inflection: “The use of English has reduced slowly over centuries
….There was a second person singular inflection ‘-est’ and the third person singular
inflection was ‘-eth’.”1 Now in several varieties, these second person singular
inflection and third person singular inflection have not been in use. Though verb
inflection of regular verbs, is moreover similar in Indian English, British English and
American English; but usage of some verb inflections are different from one another.
In Indian English along with British inflections, American inflections are also being
used for several irregular verbs; e.g.
Lexeme
Several Indian base verbs are also used in transliterated form and the process of
inflection occurs in English pattern; e.g.
ii) “He cringed and namasted me in apology.” (The White Tiger, 115)
1. Kirkpatric, Andy. 2007. World Englishes Hardback with Audio CD: Implications for International
Communication and English Language Teaching.
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iii) “Gone out on a blind date that has been engineered by my mom.” (The
Namesake, 194)
iv) “Men have collapsed half-dead from exhaustion and dehydration in Calcutta
after being gheraoed in the blazing sun for the best part of a day by perpetually
fresh mobs operating a shift system.” (Calcutta, G.Moorhouse, 212-213)
Indian English follows Standard English Pattern for Adjective and Adverb inflection.
Hence no variations are found.
6.1.4 Derivation
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Ayurvedic (India: A Million Mutinies Now, 67) Ayurved -ic Noun =>Adjective
Baboohood (Party System & Parties in India, 58) Baboo -hood Common Noun=>Abstract Noun
Brahminical (India, 246) Brahmin - ical Noun =>Adjective
Brahminically (Ibid) Brahmin -ically Noun =>Adjective => Adverb
Chaprasihood (Coolie, 5) Chaprasi -hood Common Noun=>Abstract Noun
Cooliedom (Ibid, 94) Coolie -dom Common Noun=>Abstract Noun
Dravidian (India: A Million Mutinies Now, 238) Dravid -ian Noun =>Adjective
Hinduism (India: A Million Mutinies Now, 168) Hindu -ism Common Noun=>Abstract Noun
Sadhuhood (Untouchable, 59) Sadhu -hood Common Noun=>Abstract Noun
Sanyasihood (R.K. Narayan: Critical Essays,149) Sanyasi -hood Common Noun =>Abstract Noun
Sikhism (Sikhism: An Introduction, xi) Sikh -ism Common Noun=>Abstract Noun
Vedic (India: A Million Mutinies Now, 67) Ved - ic Noun =>Adjective
1 Hankin, Nigel B. 2003. Hanklyn-Janklin. P. 293. (‘Lat’ word can also be applied to the man at the
top; ‘a Lat Sahib’ in this case, originally a mispronunciation of ‘Lord Sahib’ to Governor General.)
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Hence, it is quite obvious that Indian English also contributes a lot in enriching the
English vocabulary by supplying new words formed by the help of Indian words with
English derivative or vice-versa. Several times, to use derivative words of Indian
English, especially for Indian contexts and purposes, becomes an immediate need
because several Indian expressions and meanings like ‘non-manglik’, ‘vedic’ etc.
necessarily require such formations.
6.1.5 Compounding
The process of compounding in English word formation, chiefly, came into practice
during the period of English Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. During this
period, it was a very common trend to use classical elements of Greek and Latin
together, to form a new word e.g. photograph, telephone, etc. This practice was not
limited to the study of language or literature but had a very extensive area including
science, mathematics and technology etc.
In compounding two or more lexemes/ words are used together to make another
longer unit of vocabulary. It is one of the highly productive means of word formation.
In the process of compounding, two sub-structures or free morphemes are integrated
to form a structure. These morphemes that help in the formation of a brand new word
may be nouns, adjectives or verbs.
With the development of various varieties of English language, two or more shorter
words from two or more different languages are fused together to form various
compound words of enriching vocabulary of English; e.g. airbus, airport, seahorse,
seashore, fireworks, fireplace, footstep, footwear, wristwatch, landslide, landmark,
flowerpot, etc. Compound word formation out of Indian and English words and vice
versa, occur in Indian as well as in Standard English. These formations serve various
specific purposes of language. The following compounds are extracted from Indian
English writings and are categorized below on the basis of their compounding with
different parts of speech:
6.1.5.1 Hybridized Compound Words: The compounds that possess words from
two or more languages may be termed as Hybridized Compounds. In Indian English it
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generally occurs in two ways: e.g. ‘Hindi + English Compound’ and ‘English + Hindi
Compound’; e.g.
6.1.5.1.1 Hindi + English Compound (Hindi word + English word): Under this, the
first word of the compound appears in transliterated form because it belongs to Hindi
language where as the second to English. Though, all these words may be of different
or same parts of speech. Some examples from various writings of Indian English are
given below under various parts of speech groups; e.g.
6.1.5.1.2 English + Hindi Compound (English word + Hindi word): In this the first
word is of English where as second word is from Hindi language.
Explanation: In all the examples of ‘hybridized compounding’ Hindi terms are used
as it is at any of the three stages (initial, medial and final) of compound words. To
most of the cultural (beliefs, food items, rituals and practices etc.), geographical and
religious terms English equivalents may not be found; e.g. ‘vada’ (It is an Indian food
item, uncommon in other countries; hence, it has no English equivalent). But, to
several others, English equivalents are available; e.g. pan=> betel, nikaah => marriage
etc. still the authors have used them in their transliterated form. It is so because the
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available English terms may not be eligible enough to present the actual Indian
meaning. Though, sometimes, they are used just for the sake of style; e.g. ‘reedy
jheel’. The word ‘jheel’ has its English equivalent as ‘lake’; still the poet ‘Sir Edwin
Arnold’ has used this for the sake of style.
NOUN+ VERB = Ash-smeared sadhus (The Last Labyrinth, 88) ‘bhasm-ranjit sadhu’
Explanation: In Indian English, English compound words are also used frequently.
Several translated forms are also implied among them. These translated compounds
also advocate Indian English because the imbibed meaning generally discloses
meaning directly associated to some Indian culture specific sense; e.g. head-cloth = A
culture specific cloth to be worn on head especially by ladies, that symbolizes shyness
and respect to elders etc. This may be a separate cloth or the loose end of a ‘sari’ or
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‘duppatta’ etc. Similarly, ‘hind side wisdom’ presents Indian idiomatic meanings as
‘buddhi pichhe hona’ respectively.
6.1.5.2.2 Indianized English Compounds: In the world famous novel, ‘The Gods of
Small Things’, the author introduces several English words in a very Indian manner.
She mentions them as compound words but with no space or hyphen in between. By
this she, perhaps, wants to highlight a very common Indian tendency of pronouncing
words, on the basis of one’s own understanding. In which, they assume and
pronounce different words as a single word; e.g. flatfeet (139), carsmile (153),
deadlypurposed (304) etc.
6.1.5.2.3 Hindi Compound (HINDI WORD + HINDI WORD): In this the Hindi
compound words are used in transliterated form. Though, existence of Hindi
compound is there due to the process of code-mixing only.
In Indian English also the root word may run together with no separation; e.g. flatfeet (The
Gods of Small Things, 139), or they may be hyphenated e.g. tea-man (The Apprentice, 60)
or even left as separate words e.g. family guru (Collected Stories, The Son of Rashmani,
138), although the rules for such constructions are unclear at best. Hence, it can be clearly
observed that Indian English creates a great impact on compounding.
Adverbial forms play several significant roles in English language. Adverbial forms
consist of “a word which modifies the meaning of a verb, an adjective or another
adverb.”1 Similarly, a phrase or a clause that modifies or tells something about an
1 Wren, P.C. & H. Martin. 1997. High School English Grammar and Composition. P.100.
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Adverbs are divided as Simple Adverb, Interrogative Adverb, and Relative Adverb.
Simple Adverbs are divided under following classes: time, frequency, place, manner,
degree or quantity, affirmation or negation, reason. “Nesfield, moreover, divides his
interrogative adverb into those of time, place, number, description, quality or degree,
and cause or reason.”1 Interrogative adverbs ask question on any simple adverb
whereas relative adverbs modify some word and refer back to the mentioned
antecedent.
Adverbs of Time: In Standard English “the general pattern show that the …
adverb of time normally precede”3 the word it modifies or it may appear at the
end of a sentence whereas in Indian English due to fused sentences it may also
be at middle position; e.g.
“In the renewed silence , I return to sheets of paper which smell just a little of
turmeric, ready and willing to put out of its misery a narrative which I left yesterday
hanging in midair, just as Scheherazade, depending for her very survival on leaving
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Adverb of Place: Adverb of place generally modifies a verb. That is why it may
also be categorised as a Phrasal Verb. In Standard English an adverb of place or
direction occurs after the verb to which it is related whereas in Indian English
variation is found; e.g.
Repeated Use of Adverb of Manner: In Indian English use of more than one
adverbs of manner may also be found in continuation; e.g. “Inwardly,
unsmilingly, Shaheed observed various CUTIA…” (Midnight’s Children, 352)
1 Thomson, A.J. and A.V. Martinet. 1985. A Practical English Grammar. P. 52.
2 Bandyopadhyay ,Sumana . 2010. Indianisation of English: Analysis of Linguistic Features. P.42.
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In Indian English, adverbs are very frequently formed from those adjectives or
participles which are formed out of any noun or adjective respectively. Sometimes,
this tendency is also visible even in some other varieties. A few examples of such
adverbial forms ise4mplied by renowned authors or from dignified sources are
selected for discussion; e.g.
i) “She lay dustily on her bed; we waited and feared. (Midnight’s Children, 273)
ii) “…with my whole family trooping amazedly behind us…”( Ibid, 280)
iii) “The last bachelors and spinsters sun themselves toothlessly in the childless
Mattancheorilanes.” (Moor’s Last Sigh, 119)
All the above mentioned adverbs of manner are formed from adjectives which are
made out of some nouns or non-finite form of verb (participle); e.g. dust (noun)=>
dusty (adjective) => dustily (adverb); similarly, amaze (verb) => amazed (Past
Participle) => amazedly (adverb), etc. In Indian English these types of adverb are
used very frequently and at different positions.
Use of –ly suffix even to Adverb: According to OALD the word ‘Still’ may be
used as an adverb, adjective, noun, and verb; but the given example acclaims a
more modified usage. Indian English often implies the use of suffix to form
adverb even to an adverb; e.g.: “At Methwold Estate goldfish hang stilly in
ponds while…” (Midnight’s Children, 155)
The word ‘stilly’ does not exist nor may it be formed in Standard English. As in
some cases, Indian English follows American English; hence, it also implies the
deviated formation of some adverbs used in American English; e.g. ‘stilly’1. Here,
‘stilly’ is used to mention the manner in which the goldfish hang itself in pond.
Indian English not only comprises traditional adverbs of Standard English but
also introduces several recent and innovative adverbial forms; e.g.
1 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stilly
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“…she had become so sheetly white that it was difficult to see her against the
bed clothes” (Midnight’s Children, 59)
The word ‘sheetly’ is fully Indianized formation of adverb which is derived from a
noun word ‘sheet’. On the grammatical criteria it is inappropriate but on the basis of
the implied usage and contained meaning, it is a formed adverb. In the sentence “she
had become so sheetly white”, ‘white’ is an adjective that is qualifying the pronoun
‘she’; and ‘sheetly’ is implied here as an adverb that modifies the meaning of ‘white’.
In Standard British English, the word ‘green’ is basically considered and used as an
adjective, a noun and a verb; but never as an adverb. While in Indian English
‘greenly’ is a formed as an adverb on the analogy of adding ‘-ly’ to an adjectives; e.g.
calm (adj.) + -ly (suffix) = calmly (adverb), etc.
6.1.6.4 Code – mixing of Hindi Adverbs: Indian English frequently recognizes and
takes into account code mixing of Hindi adverbs; e.g.
“A few days later, I told Asha bua that I wanted Badi Ma to meet Avanti. ‘Dheere,
dheere,’ Yash, ‘dheere, dheere’, is all she said in reply. (On a Prayer, eBook)
“Hey coolie, slow down your pace. Do not move so fast. Ahista, zara, dhere se…”
(One Year for Mourning, 119)
These examples also ascertain the use of code mixed adverbial forms of Indian
English. The first example has adverb of manner in Hindi for twice in its reduplicated
form for emphasis; where as in the second example the code-mixing is implied as a
result of Indian tendency of repetition. First time, the coolie is instructed in an
affirmation then through a negative sentence. Later, the same expression is repeated in
Indian languages (Urdu and Hindi).
1 http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/blackly
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6.1.6.5 Translated Hindi Adverbs: Many a times, Indian English also employs
word to word translation of Hindi adverbs. On the analogy of Hindi grammar, in
Indian English one can very frequently observe repetition in the use of translated
adverb, e.g.
“A wild world to the south and another to the north A wild world to the south and another
are slowly, slowly, being tamed….Slowly, slowly, to the north are slowly being
the conquest moves ahead.” (The Enchantress of tamed….The conquest moves slowly
Florence, 338) (dhire-dhire) ahead
“And slowly slowly the arms of a peasant rise up as The arms of a peasant rise up slowly as
though in prayer; knees knell in paddy water…” though in prayer; knees knell in paddy
(The Midnight’s Children,355) (dhire-dhire) water…
All the mentioned examples exhibit the Indian tendency of reduplication (especially
of certain adverbs, like ‘slowly- slowly’ etc.). Standard English does not prefer
reduplication of adverbs. “Repetition and reduplication of words and larger utterance
elements can be observed at several level in Indian English discourse….A direct
influence from Indian languages appears in the reduplication of single words to effect
a slight change in meaning.”1 Gumperz (1982) and et. el. have observed the same fact
in the case of adverbs. Other than this, the given examples also highlight the deviation
of adverbs of Indian English to British English, in respect of their positioning.
Hence, it is observed that Standard English follows a fixed word pattern. Any change
in the word sequence brings change in the contained meaning in respect of emphasis,
comparison etc. While “Indian English speakers, at the upper end of the bilingualism
cline show little deviation in the area in spite of the striking difference between the
SVO word order of English and the SOV order of most of the Indian languages.
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Indian English users show deviation in their use of the adverbials.” 1 Indian English
writers freely use adverbs. Sometimes, they strictly follow the rules of Standard
English; but sometimes, due to necessity and style, they don’t follow. As most of the
Indian languages enjoy freedom in respect of positioning of adverb; thus, for Indian
users difficulties lie in the complexities of adverb positioning. This cause brings all
the mentioned deviations in the use of various adverbs.
6.1.7 Causativization
6.1.7.1 English Verbs Used as Causatives: Basically, in English language, there are
five verbs that are used as causatives. These are: MAKE, GET, HAVE, HELP,
CAUSE and LET. These verbs depict various forces.
(Make + Person + Verb (Base Form); e.g. “The sudden influx of air and dust
made me realize, with a start, that the window had been flung open.” (Cry, The
Peacock, 119)
(get + person + to + verb); e.g. “Slowly but surely, I got them to come to me,
and began to make a handsome income.” (Best Loved Indian Stories, 39)
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“And the most delightful injuries which he had ever sustained was to have had
his teeth knocked out, for he had had them replaced with a row of false ones
mounted with gold, which had led to many a joke…” (Untouchable, 96)
“Priya Duryodhani helped me run in.” (The Great Indian Novel, 310)
“He had let her believe it was…” (Better Let Him Sleep, 344)
As per the force and authority ‘Make’ is most powerful, ‘Get’ occupies second place
and ‘Have’ occupies the third place. ‘Help’ seems to be less powerful; whereas
‘cause’ seems to be used just to highlight causativization. ‘Let’ depicts permission.
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirmala_(novel)
2 Masica, Colin P. 2005. Defining a Linguistic Area: South Asia. P.41.
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Extracts Explanation
PRESENT: Her mother often scolds and makes her shut up.” ‘chup karati hai’
(Best Loved Indian Stories, 51)
PAST:“He spoke to a well known firm of traders in Delhi and got him a dilwaaye’
job in their office at Rs. 60 a month.” (Best Loved Indian Stories, 223)
“Gautama enquired, for she had made him stumble and nearly fall” (Cry, ‘ladkadwaaya’
The Peacock,170)
FUTURE: “We will make you close down your factory.” (Best Loved ‘kawaayege’
Indian Stories, 119)
CONDITIONAL SENTENCE: “…even if they make me walk the
wooden stairs to the hangman’s noose, I’ll never ….” (The White Tiger, ‘chalwaayge’
320)
6.1.7.4 Variation: Generally, the use of causal verb in Indian English is similar to the
Standard English. But, at certain times a few variations are found due to the impact of
Indian languages; e.g.
Extracts Explanation
ACTIVE STRUCTURE
“In fact, if you must know, Pandu helped choose the In these examples, causal verb
genetic mix his sons would inherit. (Great Indian ‘helped’ and main verbs ‘choose’
Novel, 86) (in Active Structure) and
PASSIVE STRUCTURE ‘established’ (in Passive Structure)
are used together without the agent
“..Narayan began his career as a rebel, as a realistic in between. In these sentences agents
fiction writer in English, and with Mulk Raj Anand are mentioned either after object (the
and Raja Rao helped established the Indian Novels genetic mix) or just after the main
in English on new track.” (The Hindu, Sunday, July, verb (established).
5, 1998.)
On the basis of queer observation and comparative study, it is quite obvious that in
Hindi language and in several other Indian languages and dialects, causal verbs exist
in some inflected form (- waa - + main verb; e.g. khilwaati, khilwaata etc.); whereas
Indian English does not reflect any such tendency. In Standard English causal verbs
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do not exist in concrete form. Verbs like - get, help, have, make, cause etc. are used
additionally (other than the main verb and helping verb) to satisfy the need for causal
verbs. Though, at structural level a few exceptions may be found which are not
drastically away from Standard English. Hence, it can be said that Standard English
and Indian English follow almost similar patterns and rules for causal verbs and
causativization.
6.1.8 Reduplication
Reduplication is that linguistic feature which may often be seen in several Indian
languages. Several times, repetition and reduplication are taken as similar, but in
reality they “are superficially similar phenomena characterised by the iteration of
linguistic material.”1 Reduplication, “a topological feature”2 (a feature in which the
parts of something are arranged and related), is found in high frequency in several
Indian languages.
Reduplication, in any part of speech, other than verb, is generally, used for emphasis;
whereas reduplication in verb indicates emphasis along with continuation of some
process. Reduplication “results in the intensification of meaning of the item.”4
Reduplication also helps in creating the effect of colloquial speech that helps to
present a particular scene or character. Reduplication of words and phrases is one of
the characteristics of Indian English. Sridhar (1989) mentions two types of
reduplication that have different functions in Indian languages and which are
imported into the English of the character as well. According to him, “full
1 Gil, David. 2005. From Repetition to Reduplication in Riau Indonesian. Studies on Reduplication. P.31.
2 Kachru, Braj B. 1969. Current Trends in Linguistics, Volume 1; Volume 9. Ed. Thomas Albert
Sebeok. P.653.
3 Singh, Rajendra. 2005. Reduplication in Modern Hindi and the Theory of Reduplication, Studies
on Reduplication. P. 263.
4 Bhatt, Rakesh M.2009. Expert Discourse, Local Practices , and Hybridity: The Case of Indian
Englishes; Reclaiming the Local in Language Policy and Practice. P. 45.
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Single Lexical Units: In this category, only one word is repeated and that is the
literal translation of some Hindi word. Generally, under this category, adjectives are
reduplicated; e.g.
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Standard English does not support the tendency of reduplication yet it is one of the
major characteristics of Indian and some other varieties of English. Though, it is an
irregularity yet highlights the important feature of Indian English that cannot be
avoided.
Larger (Longer Lexical) Units: In this kind, reduplication is done of more than
one translated word; e.g.
“Shanti! Shanti” (Coolie, 81,133) for ‘an invocation and chanting for peace that is the
name given to a situation.’
“Sir sir please sir will they put up a cross?” (Midnight’s Children, 344)
1 . Rajend, Mesthrie. 2006. English in Language Shift: The History, Structure and Sociolinguistics of
South African Indian English. P. 55.
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6.1.8.4.2 Verb or Verb phrase: Other than nouns, verbs are also reduplicated
frequently in Indian English; e.g. She burr-burred” (The Silver Bangle, 115). Here,
the verb ‘burr’ is reduplicated but in its inflected form.
“Acha, acha, you two can have fifteen rupees a month.” (Coolie, 174)
Here, Hindi adjective ‘acha’ is used as reduplication in the form of code mixing. The
reduplication communicates ‘Okay’ instead of ‘good’ that is its literal meaning.
6.1.8.6 Hybrid Reduplication: This kind of reduplication may occur only in non-
native varieties of English, in which one item is from English language and another is
from some other language. In this kind of reduplication, English word is generally used to
clarify the Hindi word. For Indian (Hindi) users, only these Hindi words are intelligible;
thus, need no extra word for further explanation. But to English native users such Hindi
terms may be unintelligible thus requires similar English word for clarification.
Examples Explanation
“Shiva-ratri, Shiva’s night” (India: A Millon ‘Shiva-ratri’ a Hindu religious occasion is literally
Mutinies Now, 194) translated and reduplicated here as ‘Shiva’s night.’
‘Come’ is also translated reduplication of Hindi
“ Ao ji ao, come.” (The Silver Bangle, 111) word ‘aao’.
Similarly, ‘zakat’ is an Urdu word for ‘charity’.
Hence, it is also a translated reduplication.
“Zakat, charity” (A Dying Banyan,8)
Kush’ is the Indian name of a kind of grass which
is considered very pious and suitable for religious
ceremony.
“Kush, grass” (Urvashi, 100) Similarly, ‘Tandav’ refers to the dance performed
in immense anger by Lord Shiva..
“Tandav dance” (Stardust,39)
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6.1.8.8 Reduplication of Meaning: Under this category those words are taken which
are used together for a single expression; and for the same expression any of the two
words may be used; e. g. “Servant maid” (India: A Millon Mutinies Now, 232)
Explanation: ‘Maid’ means ‘a female servant for domestic work’. Here, ‘servant’
and ‘maid’ are used for a female servant.
Hence, it can be said that though Indian English follows Standard English in
reduplication; yet it is slightly different from Standard English. Reduplication occurs
in more than one way in Indian English. Sometimes, it has also been observed that in
Indian English reduplication, pauses like: commas, full stops etc. are used; e.g.
“Come, come, brother” (Coolie, 198); “…he settles down to strip the bananas, neatly
and deftly, and swallow them quickly, quickly.” (Cry, the Peacock, 76); “No, no, he
will want money...” (Coolie, 5) etc.
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This linguistic process is widely used almost in every language of South Asia. Words
of echo formation are characterized by reduplication of a complete word or phrase,
with the initial segment or syllable of the reduplicant being overwritten by a fixed
segment or syllable. Echo word formation is also found in several Indian languages
including Hindi. Even, in Indian English, echo formation is found in a great degree.
Echo word formation in Indian English can be categorised as follows:
6.1.9.1 Meaningless Echo Word Formation: The echo words that don’t carry any
meaning in particular, may be termed as meaningless echo words. To maintain
lucidity and natural flow in the language, Hindi grammar has been equipped with a
very wide range of meaningful and meaningless words; e.g. chai-vai, paisa-vaisa etc.
In Hindi language, echo words may be formed from almost every noun. In Hindi
grammar, these are used collectively to communicate some specific meaning.
Meaningless echo word may occur under following ways:
i) “Don't use big/shig words that only Shakespeare can understand. Go marry
Shakespeare…” (Love on Velocity Express, 34)
ii) “Don't use big/shig words that only Shakespeare can understand. Go marry
Shakespeare…” (Love on Velocity Express, 34)
iii) “You know, disco-shisco,’ he said, …” (Gods, Graves, and Grandmother, 217)
Explanation: In the both examples, the echo word ‘-shig’ is performing the function of
an echo word of ‘big’ that positively enhances its meaning. Letters ‘b’ and ‘d’ changed to
letters ‘sh-’; and sounds /b/ of ‘big’ and /d/ of ‘disco’ are changed to sound /ʃ/ as ‘–shig’
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and ‘-shisco’ in all the three examples. Indian English also witnesses a change from the
base word, generally, at the initial sound or the letter of the echo word.
i) “Love-shove is okay, ji. But a girl needs security first…” (Superstar India: From
Incredible To Unstoppable, eBook)
ii) “Sir, I don't know any English-Vinglish…." (The Unofficial Joke Book of
Sheikh Chilli, 108)
iii) “The whole of Hollywood is going to be there, all the big-shig directors, actor-
vactors.”(How I Got Lucky, eBook)
Explanation: In the given examples, the echo word ‘-shove’, ‘-Vinglish’ and ‘-
vactors’ are performing the function of echo words of ‘love’, ‘English’ and ‘actor’
respectively, that convey depreciative meaning.
ii) “…I accidently got onto and from where I did not get off until Nagercoil where
a great mara-mari (combat, struggle) took place between two politicians.
(Another India, 212.)
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i) “Go and drink your Coke-shoke /in your AC vehicle. (Satanic Verses, 478)
ii) “Mobile-shobile, this instrument I also have, she says, instantly drop- ping the
cover story with a shrug, her voice rising a couple of notches.” (The Ground
beneath Her Feet, 511)
Example: The words ‘-shoke’ and ‘-shobile’ are used as echo words to bring a very
casual meaning to the respective base word.
6.1.9.2 Meaningful Echo Word Formation: In this category, both the words, i.e.
base word and the echo word are meaningful but the second word either compliments
the initial word (base word) or carries the similar meaning to the base word. This
tendency of (Meaningful-Meaningful) echo formation is also found in Hindi
language. Some examples are presented as follows:
Hindi Word + Hindi Word: Both the items of echo formation are meaningful words
of Hindi language; e.g.
“…we have gaana bajana [making merriment by singing and playing instrumental
music], khana peena [enjoying by eating and drinking varieties of edibles], these
people get ignored, and that is not fair.” (American Karma: Race, Culture and Identity
in Indian Diaspora, 124)
“The boy was cherry but homesick (he missed the ‘khelna kudna’ [making merriment
by involving oneself in physical activities], the abandon, of his village); and Munna
was a bully. (Calcutta: Two Years in the City, eBook)
Explanation: Both of the Hindi words of these echo formations are meaningful and
even when they are used together they also communicate some idiomatic meaning.
The respective Indian idiomatic meaning is mostly mentioned within parentheses by
the authors to communicate the actual cultural meaning related to the echo formation.
English Word +English Word: Both the items of echo formations are
meaningful words of English language; e.g.
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Examples Explanation
“You are talking about that zero- In these sentences, it can be noticed that the word for echo
hero.” (Gods, Graves, and formation may not always meaningless. It may be a meaningful
Grandmother, 163) word of the same language. Here, the words of echo formation;
“Then the gristly-bristly face i.e. ‘- hero’ and ‘-bristly’ compliment the base word ‘zero’ and
contorted…” (The Gods of Small ‘-gristly’. These echo words have their own meaning, in
Things, 104) particular, similar to the meaning of the base words.
6.1.9.3 Echo Word with Changed Final Sound and Letter/s: In Indian English,
various variations can be observed in echo formation. As a result, in Indian English,
echo words may also be found with changed letter/s and sound at the final stage; e.g.
Examples Explanation
“Here Sundar put his foot down, saying that The example presents that the letters <-ow> and the
neither of them were of the age for such vowel sound /əʊ/ of the base word ‘show’ is replaced
‘show-sha -giri’. (Gods, Graves, and to letter <a> and sound /ɑː/ of the echo word ‘-sha’ at
Grandmother,179) the final position.
6.1.9.4 Echo Word with a Changed Medial Sound and Letter: Indian English also
involves a change in the sound at the medial stage of the echo words. For instance,
“the English word fit can render an echo word fit-vit (fit etc.). The echo formation
with v is an unmarked productive process of Standard Indian English…another echo
word fiT-faaT (fit etc.) can be witnessed in the regional varieties of (Indian)
English….”1 Such kind of word formation provides a local touch as well as natural
regional tone and intonation to the language.
1 Bhatia, Tej K and William C. Ritchie. 2008. Bilingualism in South Asia Ed , Tej K Bhatia and
William C. Ritchie. The Handbook of Bilingualism. P.799.
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Similarly, all such compound words look as echo formations, but have their own
specific meanings.
Hence, it can be asserted that the tendency of echo word formation is very little in
Standard English, and it is generally found in some children oriented pieces; whereas
it is very richly and vibrantly visible in Indian English, making Indian English a
powerful variety of its own style.
6.1.10.1 Politeness and Respectful Tone: There are various devices and means in
every language to encode politeness. It may be encoded through intonational pattern,
lexicon or syntactic structures other than speech forms. In most of the Indian
languages politeness occurs (if required) in all the possible ways. This feature of
Indian languages is clearly reflected in Indian English in various ways; e.g.
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“Shyam beta, talk normally, this is not convent school debate you won…” (Love on
Velocity Express, 34)
In Indian English, ‘beta’ ‘beti’ type of Hindi address / relation terms are generally
used in common discourse. These terms may be used at either side of the proper noun
as per the meaning; e.g. ‘Shyam Beta’ or ‘Beta Shyam’ whereas when used in English
(in translated form) these address terms always occur before the Proper Noun; e.g.
‘Son, Shyam’
6.1.10.1.2 Address and Reference Terms: Every language implies address and
reference terms in its common discourse but Indian English implies it in somewhat
different manner from that of Standard British English. These are as follows:
6.1.10.1.2.1 Use of Hindi Suffixes with Titles and Professional Address Terms: In
Indian English, Hindi suffixes are used very fluently along with English and Hindi
terms; e.g.
ii) “Sarika hung her head and felt the tears rising. He sounded so formal. 'Master
sahib,' she said.” (Divine Music, 238)
iii) “…conducting the affairs of the Marris Music College in far off Lucknow as
Principal, precisely as Panditji ...” (Between Two Tanpuras, 157)
iv) “Then he said, "Salaam, Maulvi ji..." (The Fourth Direction and Other Stories, 41)
v) "Some simply came in to ask 'Madamji, no class today?', ( (No Way Home, 86)
6.1.10.1.2.2 Use of ‘–ji’ Suffix with English Relation Terms: Indian English has
a very common tendency of using English words, especially the relation terms, as its
own. Hence as the consequence, even with English words and terms Indian suffixes
are used fluently; e.g. “Auntyji, I am not going to marry this dictionary.” (Love on
Velocity Express, 34)
6.1.10.1.2.3 Use of Pet Names: Almost every Indian culture and religion implies
the concept of ‘pet name’ along with a ‘good name’ or ‘official name’. “…good
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names (are) used in public, and pet names (are) used by families…” 1; e.g.“Ashima’s
pet name is Monu, Ashoke’s Mitthu,and,,,”(The Namesake, 26)
“‘No, Beybey, it is I – Nooran. Chacha Imam Baksh’s daughter,’ answered the girl
timidly.” (Train to Pakistan, 137)
Here, in this example, it can be seen that a daughter is mentioning her father’s name
along with the kinship term ‘Chacha’ that is used as an honorific address for Imam
Baksh by almost all the persons in the neighbourhood and society. Such terms are also
commonly used by Indians even to address some stranger or less familiar persons.
Selection of term is, generally, based on the age of the addressee and the speaker.
These are generally the terms of moral respect and regard. “Mother as a term of
respect, sister of regard…bhai is used for any male of equal age…uncle may be
referred to as father.”2
6.1.10.1.2.5 Use of Plain Honorific Terms: Use of various honorific terms without
any title or name, in translated, transliterated, hybridized or code-mixed form, is also
one of the major tendency of verbal strategies of Indian English; e.g.
1 Joshi, Suchita. 2005. The Namesake Account of a Name, Looking for its Bearer, Indian Women
Novelists in English. P.114.
2 Gramley, Stephan and Michael Patzold. A Survey of Modern English. P.202.
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6.1.10.1.2.6 Use of Phrasal Terms of Superiority: Indian English, as its the verbal
strategy, also witnesses the use of phrasal superiority term; e.g.
“‘I did not see him on the train, cherisher of the poor. I only carried out yours
orders…” (Train to Pakistan,79)
“…presence of their wives, whereas they try to appear over-polite while interacting
with their beloved…”2; e.g. “I spread my handkerchief, and said, “Sit down Rosi.”
(The Guide, 145)
6.1.10.3 Greeting Style- Indians, generally, bid the name of their preferred deity to
wish one another which is truly reflected in Indian English and in several Indian
languages; e.g. ‘Sat sri Akal’ (Train to Pakistan, 174)
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Example Expression
“ ‘Ram, Ram!' protested some of them.” (Penguin Book of Indian Disapproval and protest
journeys, 327)
“…muttering ‘Ram, Ram, Ram’, ‘Hari Hari Hari’, Sri Sri Sri’ and prayer or invocation
other incantations, …” (Coolie, 120)
Explanation: Several Indian English novels and writings repeatedly present various
blessings and complements which are also Indian in nature.
6.1.10.4 Code Mixing and Code Switching: As one of its verbal strategies, Indian
English takes into use ‘code-switching’ for various important purposes e. g.
Indian Casticism and Explanation: Indian English has to imbibe Indian words in their
Profession: original form for various Indian expressions that cannot be given
in English language because of the unavailability of that specific
“We had never seen the
term or expression; e.g. ‘Mallahin’ is the inflicted form of a Hindi
Mallahin in this village
noun word ‘Mallah’ (one who rows a boat). In Indian concept,
before the dacoity.”?
word ‘Mallah’ denotes not only an occupation but a specific caste
(Khushwant Singh's
also. Similarly, ‘Mallahin’ refers to the wife of a ‘Mallah’. In
Book of Unforgettable
English language, the term ‘sailor’ is available for ‘Mallah’, but
Women, 62)
‘sailor’ only denotes the occupation not any specific caste. That is
why the process of code-mixing is implied.
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Example
i) “O God, Saleem, all this tamasha, all this performance, for one of your stupid
cracks?” (Midnight’s Children, 194) etc.
ii) “Bhai, wow. I’m tickled, truly. Tickled pink” (Satanic Verses, 83)
6.1.10.6 Use of Question Tags in Indian Way: More often, the word order of
question tags is unique in Indian English. “…an area which has a distinct tone of
‘Indian English’ is the area of question tags. …Indian English tends to use question
tags…’isn’t it?’ across the board in the sentence...”1
i) “Drank water from the same cup without either of them putting their lips to the
rim” (The Namesake, 17)
ii) “Ashima ties red threads for good luck to a marble lattice screen” (The
Namesake, 85)
Explanation: The first example communicates ‘Bina juhoota kiye/ upar se peena’; is
an Indian way to maintain piousness/ purity of the cup. Similarly, the words ‘red
threads’ in the second example are unable to convey the Indian meaning of ‘kalawa’,
the writer explains the purpose to communicate the Indian item.
Hence, it is proven that Indian English has evolved its own verbal strategies like use
of polite terms, -suffixes, address terms, repetition, and explanation etc. on the
analogy of Indian languages as per the requirement of situation or expression.
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most extensive of its kind ever known…”1 Though, hybridized English is a medium to
Indianize English as well as to anglicize India. It welcomes and introduces various
unique Indian images, emotions, objects and ways of living into English, but in
hybridized form. “Hybridization of Hindi and English is argued to be an ongoing
process that takes place in on-the-ground interactions between bilingual speakers
through a lively interplay of Hindi and English similarity and difference that relies on
the robust distinctiveness of Hindi and English as separate languages.”2
Hybridization of English also occurs in Indian English. It is not majorly distinct from
British or American English. Hybridized English is a traceable mixture of Standard
English and Indian English. Traceable, because anyone who knows both the
languages may point out hybridized combination. The activity of hybridization is,
generally, performed by highly educated and well versed persons of the concerned
languages. Same is the case of hybridization in Indian English. Though, sometimes,
because of utmost necessity, it may be an unavoidable activity. Generally,
hybridization is implied in Indian English to make the work natural as well as
intelligible for non-natives.
Sound /v/ for /w/: In Standard “English /v/ is produced by a loose lower lip in
contact with the upper teeth…[and] /w/ is produced with lips rounded about as
much as for sounding the vowel /u:/.”4 While the English labiovelar sound /w/
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does not exist in Hindi language; hence, as the result of hybridization, sound /w/
is pronounced as (English labio-dental sound) /v/ in Indian English by several
Indian English speakers.
Sound /ph/ for /f/: Similarly, sound /f/ is produced with bilabial place of
articulation instead of labiodental in Indian English by several Eastern Indian
English speakers (that makes the sounds <father> as <phather>). This kind of
articulation may also be taken as an example of hybrid articulation because
according to IPA sound /f/ is labio-dental (father) whereas according to Hindi
articulation sound /f/ is bilabial (Phal that means fruit).
6.2.2 Morphological and Lexical Level: Hybridization also leads toward natural
formation of new words that enrich vocabulary of English; e.g.
“Oh my God my hour has come, my darling madam, Jail (English term) + Here, it can be seen that compound
only let me go peacefully, do not put me in the Khana (Hindi/ Urdu term) words are formed on the basis of
jailkhana!” (Midnight’s Children, 279) = Jailkhana hybridization. In this one item of
“Probably the cheapest and easily obtainable biogas is the compound belongs to English
gobar gas (or dung gas),…”(Engineering Chemistry, language while the other belongs to
Gobar (Hindi term) + Gas
544) any of Indian languages. In this,
(English term) = Gobar gas
both the item of the compound may
occur with a space or without any
“No wonder the folk music of Uttar Pradesh is so full Bidaai (Hindi term) + song space or with a hyphen in between.
of heartbreaking bidaai songs.” (Chander and Sudha, (English term) = Bidaai
eBook) song.
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6.2.4 At Entertainment Level: Other than this, hybridization can also be found in the
language used at entertainment front. There are many films that try to attract the
audience with their hybridized titles such as ‘Ek Choti Se Love Story’, ‘Jab We Met’,
‘Love Aaj kal’, ‘Biwi No. One’, ‘Golmaal Returns’ etc. Other than these, there are full
English titles of several Hindi Movies such as ‘1942 A Love Story’, ‘Love’ ‘Murder’,
‘Race’ etc. These movies are in Hindi language with slight use of English language,
here and there. They also present several occasion of hybridization.
All such descriptions bring an Indian tang with true creativity that trumpets
hybridization in Indian English. “The hybrid language, therefore, needs to be
considered just like other matters of style, structure, plot and theme…The best-known
artistic hybridization is provided by Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, which
introduces Indian exclamations and expressions drawn from such disparate sources as
film language, newspaper cuttings, billboards, and Indian epics. There is no glossary,
nor translation, nor are these expressions … marked off in the text by italics or
apostrophes.” 1
Therefore, it is quite obvious that hybridization of English is the need of present day to
communicate several cultural, traditional, religion specific expressions. Along with this,
hybridization may occur in versatile manners to serve several purpose of language and
may provide Indian English the status of an established variety of English.
In linguistics, the word ‘syntax’ refers to the way in which words and phrases are put
together to form sentences in a language; whereas the phrase ‘syntactic features’
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means “a feature with semantic content not used in any syntactic rule is called a
(purely) semantic feature.”1 Chomsky (1965; 88, 153) defines ‘syntactic categories’
as exactly those categories which appear in syntactic rules. Syntactic rules mean the
statements that play a role in determining the well-formation of deep structure,
surface structures, and logical forms; they don’t refer to any phonological information
associated with lexical entries. Thus, when a certain rule of syntax in a formally
constrained and empirically enlightening; syntactic description must be expressed in
terms of a certain category, that category or feature is called “syntactic”. Chomsky
(1965) further emphasizes that this definition of syntactic categories does not mean
that they play no role in the semantic component. Thus, “semantic feature/ category”
does not only refer to any feature implied in a theory of semantics, but a feature not
used in syntax.
Each variety of language has certain syntactic features. Similarly, Indian English also
has some syntactic features of its own but along with some characteristics that are
different from that of the rules of Standard English. Hence, it may be said that Indian
English has a few syntactic irregularities; but actually they are the key characteristics
of Indian English.
6.3.1 Syntactic Features of Indian English: Indian English, Indianness “lies in the
fact that within the overall general framework of the systems of English, it displays
certain distinguishing phonological, lexico-semantic, and also syntactic features.”3 A
few syntactical irregularities which actually are the syntactic features of Indian
English are observed and discussed below:
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Example Explanation
“…and if I choose to believe that the story then On the analogy of Hindi language, in (i) example,
the future is exactly clear to me”(Red Earth and simple present (is); and in (ii) progressive form
Pouring Rain, eBook) of verb (am going) are used in main clause
“Jones, if you don’t go home immediately I am instead of future indefinite. A comma between
going to arrest you on suspicion…”(Ibid) the two clauses is also missing. In the (i) example
‘then’ is used instead of comma.
“If somebody finds out, they’ll think I am Type 1 pattern of Standard English is followed.
planning a regicide or a coup or something. I’ll Though, in the second part, structure of ‘Let’ has
be lucky if they let me poison myself. ” (Ibid) been followed.
“Hurcules began to seek a compromise - the Type-2 Pattern of Standard English is followed
journey, he said, would be sanctioned if the but in passive voice. Omission of pronominal
party were escorted by a detachment of the subject (it) in the main clause is notable.
company’s cavalry, …” (Ibid)
“…and he knew that he had to keep speaking, Double ‘if’ clauses are used in the same sentence.
that if he stopped now, that if silence took him ‘If’ is preceded by ‘that’ on the analogy of Hindi
now he would be lost forever. (Ibid) (kyoki-agar). ‘Comma’ that links both the
clauses is missing in the later part.
“If they slept there, she and Estha, curled Additional information is presented in between
together like foetuses in a shallow steel womb, ‘if clause’ and ‘main clause’.
what would Hulk Hogan and Bam Bam Bigelow
do? (The Gods of Small Things, 188)
“If Comrade Pillai was outside his house oiling In main clause omission of ‘would’ is made.
himself when Estha walked past, he made a point Some additional information is also placed in
to greet him.” (Ibid, 14) between if clause and main clause.
1 Sethi, J.2011. Standard English and Indian Usage: Vocabulary and Grammar. P. 130.
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Questions Tags & Response to Tag Questions: Standard English follows the
following pattern of Question tags and Responses;-
In Indian English, this standard pattern is followed; but here and there some variations
are found which are due to the influence of mother tongue; e.g.
Question Tags
a) “… why can’t we take pride in our surroundings, isn’t it, and the garden is
overgrown…”(Satanic Verses,44)
b) “He has understood: that he is afraid of the other, the businessman, isn’t it
crazy? (Ibid, 108-109)
e) “You will also teach me, won’t you, little brother? (Untouchable, 32)
f) “Some people call it hoarding. Isn’t it that so?(The City and the River, 93)
Throughout, the novel Satanic Verses (P. 44, 70, 108, 109, 244, 310, 325, 366 etc.),
Question tag “…isn’t it?” is used several times as a ‘takiya kalam’ (Non-fluency/
punch line).Sentence (a) shows the loss of mark of Interrogation (?) as the tag is used
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in between the sentence. Tags in the sentences (b, c, d,) ignore the rule of accordance
of verb-verb, and noun-pronoun.
In sentence (e) ‘little brother?’ is used as nominative of address after the standard
pattern of question tag. Sentence- (f) presents the tag but in the form of an
interrogative sentence and the verb and the pronoun are used in accordance to the
object.
A few extracts from various sources of such examples are quoted below:
Poetry: The syntactic feature, to use the present continuous tense instead of
simple present, is seen in every register of human living, even in the composition of
poems, e.g.
1 Kachru, Braj B. 1983. The Indianization of English: the English language in India. P. 78.
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The use of present continuous tense in almost all genres (poetry, prose etc.) as well as
in various registers (poems, journalism, correspondence etc.) of Indian writing can be
noticed.
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Though, in Indian English several examples of ‘insist’ along with preposition ‘on’
may also be found; e.g.
Preposition for Emphasis: One can also find prepositions in Indian English
even at the places where they are least required. Indians generally, use it to emphasize
any situation; e.g.
Example Explanation
“Only the memory of the echo “‘Together with’ is even more emphatic than ‘along
lingered to fill and fill the room till it, with’” (English Prepositions Explained, 244)
together with the heat, the dust grew Here, the word ‘bow’ communicates ‘to be
unbearable.” (Cry, the Peacock, 155) submissive’; preposition ‘down’ is used just for
“You have to bow down to touch his emphasis.
feet, and touch the dust under his In Standard English ‘bow down’ means
slippers” (The White Tiger, 25) (disapproving) to allow somebody/something to tell
you what to do
1 Sethi, J. 2011. Standard English and Indian Usage: Vocabulary and Grammar. P.108.
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Example Explanation
“They walked past the Class III The word ‘past’ can play the role of three different parts of
Airport Workers’ Union token one speech in a sentence. It may function as a noun to denote
day hunger strike. And past the the meaning "what has already happened" (e.g. ‘Learn from
people watching the Class III past, plan for future’) as an adjective meaning "gone by" or
Airport Workers’ Union token one "ended" (e.g. ‘Everyone has golden memories of his past
day hunger strike. And past the days’) and can also be a used as a preposition, meaning
people watching the people "beyond" or "by" (e.g. ‘It is quarter past seven’). In this,
watching the…” (The God of Small Past is used as a Preposition.
Things, 150)
1 Cowan, Ron. 2008. The Teacher's Grammar of English with Answers. P.176.
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Though, there are several similarities in the use of several prepositions and
prepositional verbs. For example; in almost every variety of English prepositional
verbs like ‘depend on’, ‘stare at’ etc. are common. To some prepositions, differences
can be monitored as per their semantic meanings; e.g. ‘narrate to’, ‘talk about’ etc.
There are a few prepositional verbs which are used in different manner among the
various varieties of English. “Biber et al. claim that in British and American English,
‘to’, is the most common preposition occurring as a part of prepositional verb. In the
Indian corpus, however, sometimes, ‘to’ was found to occur infrequently.”;1e.g.
“I will close for today.” (Two Lives, 265) I close for today.
OR
Clausal Sentence: I am closing for today.
“Now Darling, I forgot Judy was coming today.” Now Darling, I forgot that Judy was coming
(Two Lives, 53) that day.
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What-
“And what of the story?.........What story? May …And what is the story?. . . What is the
said? (The Shadow Lines, 205) story? What did May say?
What? What? He said so? Does he know how old What? Did he say so? Does he know
Aruna is? Thirteen! And he dares to ask for the how old Aruna is? Thirteen! And how
younger daughter when we show him the elder?” dare he ask for the younger daughter
(Fasting, Feasting, 79) when we showed him the elder?
Who-
“Who benefited from it?” (Miss New India, 274) Who was benefited from it?
“Who watches it, and who has the time?” (Miss Who does watch it, and who has the
New India, 205) time?
Repetition of ‘What?’ with a positive sentence along with mark of interrogation also
expresses question. The same pattern is followed with the following part of the
sentence (extract no. vi: e.g. “Thirteen! And he dares to ask for the younger daughter
when we show him the elder?” [Fasting, Feasting, 79]; where even question word or
helping verb has not been used.
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the simple past tense. “In English the present perfect establishes a link between the
past and the present. It is not used in the environment of the simple past. In Indian
English, this distinction is neutralized.”1
Ignoring Articles: As most of the Indian languages don’t posses any article;
thus, in many cases, Indian English also presents another syntactical features of
ignoring articles. This feature is also a reflection of Indian languages. Omission of
article ‘the’ before heavenly bodies (seven stars, sun, sand) and superlative degree of
adjective (best) and can be observed in the given sentences; e.g.
(a) “The moon continues to glow, just like it did the night before, but its
position in the sky has changed by now…seven stars.” (Your Dreams are
Mine Now, eBook)
(b) “‘Goa,’ I said. ‘Let’s all go to Goa. Nothing like the sea, sun and sand to
make the two families bond.” (Ibid, act iv)
(c) “‘Ananya Swaminathan — best girl in the fresher batch’” (2 States: The
Story of My Marriage, 1)
In the sentence (b), perhaps just to avoid the wordiness, article ‘the’ is used before
‘sea’ but not before ‘sun’ and ‘sand’ which are mentioned just one after another.
6.3.1.13 Use of Italic and Inverted Commas: The italic words and inverted
commas are also used very frequently by Indian English writers to highlight various
Indian expressions and terms; e.g.
a) “Looking after this city is like a yajna for him, his life is the ahuti.”(The City
and the River, 17)
b) “As darkness descended in the shabby, suburban preview theatre, he eased his
feet out of his white Rexine chappals, reached for his Pan Parag dabba, bleched
discreetly and touched the panch-mukhi rudraksha around his neck.” (Starry
Nights, 01)
1 Verma, S.K. 1980. Swadeshi English: Form and Functions, Indian Linguistics, 41: 2. P. 80
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In extract (a) ‘yajana’ and ‘ahuti’, and in (b) ‘chappals’, ‘ dabba’ ,’panch-mukhi’ and
‘rudraksha’ are Hindi/Sanskrit words which are taken into use as it is, but in italicized
manner. The compound word ‘Pan Parag’ is also a Hindi compound word, still
written in normal font because in this sentence it is denoting a brand of mouth
freshener; whereas, in extract (c) only the name (Ananya Swaminathan), which is a
proper noun, is Indian. Rest of the sentence is in English. But, as the sentence
highlights special features of Indian English and Indianness; it is italicized. Hence, it
is proven that Indian English writers use this device to express some ironic
statements, comic effects and to infuse greater Indian sense (religion, culture, tradition
and social etc.) to the discussed action.
6.3.1.14 Parenthesis and Brackets: Indian writers also use the device of
parenthesis / brackets to detailed and effective narration, authors’ comments as well
as to present soliloquies of their characters; e.g.
Actual Narration: “Estha and Rahel’s father had to hold their mother’s
stomach (with them in it) to prevent it from wobbling”(The Gods of Small Things, 3)
Even before he replaced false head with fake tail he had become irresistibly attractive
to women. The seductions of his fame…” (The Satanic Verses, 25)
6.3.1.15 Use of Possessive Case: In the use of possessive case, Indian English
sometimes, also differs from that of Standard English, e.g. “Ravi Verma paintings,
Chandela bronzes, Jaisalmer lattices.” (Satanic Verses, 70)
In the given extract omission of apostrophe (’) and ‘s’, i.e. -’s is evidently visible.
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Examples Explanation
“What is education? Is this learning? No. Is it diverse knowledge? Sometimes some great
Not even that…. The training by which…” (The Complete Works of teachers like
Vivekananda, VII, 490) Vivekanand, Aurobindo
etc. put forth their
“Now comes the next question: What is the work? What is this
thoughts (answers) after
doing good to the world? Can we do good to the world? In an
asking a series of
absolute sense, no in a relative sense. Yes. No permanent or everlasting
related question. This
good can be done to the world, if it could be…” (Complete Work of
presents the clarity
Swami Vivekanand. Vol.-1)
about the whole content
“What is the work of psychic being? You want it to have some because the questions
work? What do you want to say exactly? What is its function? Ah! are directly framed on
Very well. One could put it this way, that.” the topic sentence.
(Mother Psychic Being, 47)
“Certain syntactic patterns have become so well established in Indian English that
they get passed on from one generation to the next, acquiring the status of stable
dialectal innovations…these patterns differ systematically in a rule governed way
from the native varieties of English. The frequency, with which the native Indians use
these patterns in their actual behaviour, is, however, an empirical question.”1 Hence,
it can be said that the syntactical irregularities from the point of view of Standard
English have basically become apparent as the syntactical features of Indian English
and these are irreplaceable because of the impact of Indian languages.
Human being, a creative creature, uses diversified languages in several different ways
in various references, conditions and purposes. This dissimilarity is generally found
specifically due to time, place, society, person, genre and usage. Hence, during the
various stages of development of language, several forms of language: time-specific;
place specific, society-specific, individual-specific, genre-specific and register-
specific are found in the same language. These found diversities are called the styles
1 Verma, S.K. 1980. Swadeshi English: Form and Functions, Indian Linguistics. P. 117.
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of Language. The creative power of a person is the creative power of the language and
that is why, especially in the field of literature, it continues to encroach the
grammatical standards. Stylistics presents the role of language in literature and
minutely observes variations in the style. It generally observes how any specific
writer or speaker puts forth his thoughts, manner of expression and presentation, his
use of language, concentration on variations and innovation etc. It is a systematic
study of contemplated as well as conscious use of language in literature etc.
During twentieth century, the famous linguist Charles Bally of Geneva School acquired
the idea of stylistics from his teacher, Fardinand de Saussure, and thus, introduced
modern linguistic stylistics in his Traite de stylistique francise. According to his set modal
stylistics is the study of expressive effects and mechanism in all languages, the only
concrete reality being linguistic communication. Expecting the oral transfer of moods,
everything with the broad framework of language is, to Bally, mere abstraction, a
deviation from the natural language habits. Bally told that emotionalism is involved in an
individual’s language that in specific conditions is filled in natural manner with man’s
valuable elements of pronunciation. Basically, this emotionalism presents such values in
language which are the values of style. Stylistics studies these values. By this way, to
study the expression of organised verbal human languages on the basis of the included
effective elements means: expression of sensitivity by the medium of language and study
of business of language based on sensitivity is the work of stylistics. Bally has considered
stylistics - a study of the process and manifestation of language. This opinion of his is
totally based on rational and effective qualities of language. Marsail Crasot contradicted
the opinion of Bally and has given full recognition to the linguistic study of literary
language.
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By this way stylistics is originated in the form of an international study in the field of
literature. Various kinds of language can be seen according to various contexts,
conditions, purposes and aims. All these various forms of languages are termed as
stylistics. The present form of style has developed from various styles related
opinions. Under stylistics, the style is studied in a register specific form of linguistics.
Hence, it can be said “stylistics is that language specific model of criticism that brings
together linguistics principles, rules and usages along with artistic and aesthetic sense
of literary criticism within it.”1 Stylistics is a term that is directly related to ‘style’ and
‘artifice’. Yet, it can be said that style, “is a characteristic way of deploying the
transformational apparatus of a language”;2 whereas the word ‘artifice’ means ‘the
clever use of tricks to cheat somebody’.
Every language of the world has own stylistic devices. The following stylistic devices
may be easily found in Indian English:
6.4.1 Fusion: Fusion means mixing of any two or more items, words, phrases,
clauses or sentences. It is one of the Indian devices of stylistics. Use of fused words,
phrases, clauses as well as sentences brings stylistic variations between Standard
English and Indian English. The fusion occurs in the following five levels:
6.4.1.1 The Fusion of Words/ Lexicon: The fusion of words/ lexicon may be found
in two ways. The world famous Indian novel ‘The Gods of Small Things’ depicts
simple as well as hyphenated fusion at several places; e.g.
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Plain fusion: In this, words are written together without any space or hyphen;
e.g. “Stoppit”, “Stoppited” (141), “bellbottoms” (172) “moonwalked” (108),
“finethankyou” (145), “bluegreyblue” (147) etc.
6.4.1.2 The Fusion of Clauses/ Sentences: Fused sentences are those sentences in
which unnecessary and inappropriate synthesis is done. “A fused sentence is
basically an incorrect combination of two independent sentences.”1 “A fused
sentence, or run-on sentence, consists of two independent clauses run together without
any punctuation at all.”2 Sometimes, Indian authors deliberately imply punctuation in
such a way that brings variation to their style than that of Standard English; e.g.
“On one of Rama Studios’ seven impotent stages, Miss Pimple Billimoria, the latest
chilli-and-spices bombshell-she’s no flibberti-gibberti mamzell, but a whir-stir-get-
lost-sir bundla dynamite- clad in temple–dancer veiled undress and positioned
beneath writhing cardboard representations of copulating Tantric figures from the
Chandela period, - and perceiving that her major scene was not to be, her big break
lay in pieces – offered up a spiteful farewell before an audience of sound recordists
and electricians smoking their cynical beedis.” (The Satanic Verses, 12)
Explanation: In the given example, many pieces of versatile information are fused in
one sentence.
6.4.1.3 Fusion with in Theme and Content: The characteristic of using fused
sentences is available in Indian English prose as well as poetry genre. Even,
sometimes due to Indianness in Indian English, the theme itself depicts fusion. As a
stylistic device, Kamala Das has used fused sentences in her mythical poem ‘Radha’
with an intention to exhibit thematic fusion. “The poem’s (Radha) main syntactic
break is the ellipsis in the end. In between the beginning and the end there are only six
1
Rizvi, M. Ashraf. 2005. Effective Technical Communication. P. 325.
2
Glenn, Cheryl and Loretta Gray. 2013. The Writer’s Harbrace Handbook,. P. 415.
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commas introducing brief pauses and leaves out full stops. …[Such] structure of the
poem further helps the fusion of the theme.”1
6.4.1.4 Fusion of Languages: Indian authors are well adept in creating a fusion of
languages. To demonstrate absolute mastery on several languages, Indian writers
innocently but skilfully, deploy words, phrases or even sentences of different Indian
languages (any one or more) along with the flow of Standard English. Rushdie,
Anand, Joshi, De, Lehri and many others have shown their skills in fusion of
languages. Fusion of two different languages is a very common phenomenon of
Indian English. But there are some Indian writers who fuse more than two languages
very efficiently. “While Roy speaks Malyalam and Hindi, English is in spite of its
contentiousness, her primary language. As she has noted in interviews, she may dip
into her other languages, but she couldn’t write a story in them.”2 In ‘The God of
Small Things’, several words from Malayalam language, without any English
equivalents, are used along with flow of English; e.g. "Thanks, Keto!'. ... 'Valarey
thanks!' (70). Even, proper noun ‘Punnyan Kunju’, which is actually a name of
Malayalam language, is mentioned in italics to emphasize such fusion. Along with
Malayalam; words, phrases and expressions from Hindi language have also been
studded with the current of English. Fusion of Malayalam, Hindi, Urdu and English
can be traced in the following extract; e.g.“ ‘Thozhilali Ekta Zindabad!’ ‘Long Live
the Revolution!’ They shouted.” (The God of Small Things, 66)
6.4.2 Repeated Use of Words: Repeated use of some words is one of the
prominent devices that play a major role in creating stylistic variations in literary
expressions of Standard English and Indian English. Though, this figure of speech and
stylistic device has also been used by several renowned writers of Britain and
America, yet their implementation of repetition is not so frequent. Generally it can be
seen in their poetic creations. But, in Indian English due to impact of mother tongue it
can be observed almost in the writings and speaking of every Indian English user (if
1 Raveendran, N. V. 2000. The Aesthetics of Sensuality: A Stylistic Study of the Poetry of Kamala
Das. P.86.
2 Mullaney, Julie.2005. Roy's The God of Small Things. P.22.
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they are not mentally prepared or trained against the same). A few examples of
repetition from Indian English writings are:
i) “Once sweet, once loved, then suddenly, rotten and repulsive.”(Cry, the Peacock, 8)
ii)“…he closes his eyes because he cannot bear to see the flat, flat lawn, the white,
white house, the many, many people,…” (Cry, the Peacock, 87)
Explanation: In sentence (i) observe the repeated use of ‘once’ and letter ‘r’, in (ii)
words ‘flat’, ‘white’ and ‘many’ have been repeated, and the portion ‘closes his eyes
because he cannot bear to see’ also repeats a single expression. Some Indian writers
like Anita Desai, use this device throughout their creations to bring a lyrical touch,
lucidity and natural flow to their writings.
“He handles it as he would a child of his own. He teases it. He punishes it. He
sends it up like a bubble. He wrestles it to the ground and lets it to go again. He
laughs at it because he loves it.” (The Gods of Small Things, 230)
“‘Isn’t there somewhere a man can be alone here?’” (The White Tiger, 151)
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Explanation: The given extract reflects Hindi language (kya kahin koi ek aadmi hai
jo yahan aakela ho?). Here, duplication of adverb of place (‘there’ &‘somewhere’)
can be monitored. In Standard English, for the same expression, the word ‘there’ must
be omitted and only the adverb ‘somewhere’ can be used. Omission of relative
pronoun (who) that also highlights fusion may also be monitored here for stylistic
variation.
According to Standard English, position of the word ‘today’ at the beginning of the
sentence would be more appreciable.
6.4.7 Formation of Novel Vocabulary: For the sake of style and novelty Indian
authors, especially journalists, immediately form new words and this word formation
is done in several different ways like formation of compound words, use of affixes to
form a new word etc.; e. g.
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Parties bank on ‘Winability Factor’ to Here two separate words are joint together to form
pick candidate” (The Hindu. Mysore, April a new word; e.g.win (verb)+ability (noun) =
2, 2013) winability (compound word)
“Picnicker of the Year” (3rd Jan. 1999, The word ‘picnicker’ is formed on the analogy of
Sunday Review, TOI) cricket> cricketer; play> player etc.
6.4.8 Question Tags: Stylistic variations can also be seen in Indian English in the
formation of question tags;
“Then the train travelled arrived, with a In Standard English, the sentence does not continue
great blowing of triumphant whistles: it further if a question tag is used, but in Indian English
had completed its long journey from the due to stylistic variation instances may also be found in
south, it had achieved its destination, which a sentence continues, without any pause, even
hadn’t it said it would?” (Royalty, 3) after a question tag.
Hence, it is well known that stylistic variation occurs because no two individuals may
be same nor can be their style; and when it is the matter of the users of two or more
different languages, the impact of stylistic variation is unavoidable. This cannot be
considered as mistake because due to these variations only they become intelligible to
the other users of the same community. By this way, due to stylistic variations the
language English plays the eminent role of a language in the country.
Society plays a major role in creating linguistic ornamentation. Idioms and proverbs
are majorly considered among such ornaments that embody colourful imagery of any
language and collective wisdom of general masses. Minsberg compares its presence
with a smile of human faces. Idioms and proverbs are the devices that are moulded
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not in the factory of literary language but in the ‘taksaal’1 (mint) of common language.
Idioms and proverbs are generally discussed together but they are two different
linguistic devices.
6.5.1 Idioms: The term idiom is derived from the Greek lexeme idios, that means ‘to
own, private, peculiar’ (OED V: 20-1). Idioms are generally used as verb/ phrasal
verb within the predicate part of any sentence. Sometimes, it may communicate more
than one meaning. Though, an idiom seems as a group of words, phrase and
sometimes as a complete sentence; but actually, it is single definite meaningful unit in
a definite form. Generally, some very well crafted condensed unit of words, phrases
or sentence etc., formed on the basis of bodily intentions, unclear sounds, stories and
proverbs or according to certain extraordinary experiments of any language that
present some specific meaning which is different from general or superficial meaning
is called an idiom. Idiom is “an expression whose meaning cannot be derived from its
constituent elements… It is an expression peculiar to a language.”2 It bears some
specific indigenous wisdom of a race.
The major characteristic of idioms is that they are language specific. Though,
translation activity may help up to a certain limit, to make it free from the boundaries
of its source language, yet a little carelessness, ignorance and less knowledge totally
smudge the meaning as well as the message of the communication. This is because of
the growing impact of globalization that various languages come into a close contact,
which at a later end causes nativization of the foreign language. In nativization a
particular speech community formulates any foreign language as its own. Nativization
occurs because of the special requirement of the speech community. In fact, they are
purposely introduced to the speech patterns. Idioms and phrases could also not remain
untouched in the process of Indianization. Indian English, generally, involves seven
types of Idioms which are as follows:
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Usage: "... I was totally taken aback by this unexpected attack and nearly lost my
balance.” (India Gate and Other Stories,133)
Usage: “The response this time has been restrained. But in this sector, the Pakistanis
hold all the aces. ...” (India Today. 1997. Vol. 22. India: Aroon Purie for Living
Media India Limited, 212)
A fate worse than death: A terrible experience, especially that of seduction or rape
6.5.1.1 Indianized Idioms: Sometimes, the writers of Indian English play with the
Idioms of Standard English to satisfy their needs or for the sake of style; e.g. “…she
fed us the birianis of dissension and the nargisi koftas of discord…” (Midnight’s
Children, 459)
Explanation: ‘An apple of discord’ is a very famous and well known idiom of
Standard English that means ‘the root cause of quarrel’; but in the above mentioned
statement the author Salman Rushdie modifies it replacing the words ‘an apple’ with
Hindi words ‘nargisi koftas’. It is a code mixing. Through this statement he also
mentions that in the family, nargisi koftas are the main reason of dispute.
This type of modified formation may not be acceptable either in Standard English or
in Indian English.
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“to eat ashes” (The Big Heart, 122) (Khakh faakhna = to face extremely hard
economical condition and suffering)
“warm the hand” (Two Leaves and a Bud,111) (hatheli garam karna = to offer
bribe)
“The edge of her tongue was like a pair of scissors.” (Untouchable) (jabaan
kaichee ki tarah hona = to be very out spoken)
“…he was giving an extra shine to his father’s name.” (The Shroud, 46) (naam
me roshan karna = to add a feather to one’s cap/ to bring name and fame)
“When she answers him tit for tat and walks out, he adopts a tight smirk …”
(Narratives of Indian Cinema, 205)
“2 days after blaze, rude cops add insult to injury” (The Times of India. Mar.
26, 2010)
“Khotan Didi felt drowned in shame like one caught red-handed.” (Our
Favourite Indian Stories, 268)
“To send rice to Bengal is very like the proverbial absurdity of carrying coals
to Newcastle.” (The Indian News and Chronicle of Eastern Affaires: 1852, 537)
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“At the age of thirty two he had salt and pepper hair.”(Our Favourite Indian
Stories,3)
to carry coals to new castle = Ulte Baans Bareli ko / ulti Ganga bahana
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6.5.1.3 Hindi Idioms in Transliterated Form: Indian idioms are also found in
Roman transcription in Indian English writings. This generally occurs as a result of
code switching or it may be for the sake of specific style to convey some meaning in
Indian manner; e.g.
“What are we but little mud dolls (mati ke putle) in the hands of fate.” (The
Strange Case of Billy Biswas, 117)
“He used to say you had a heart of gold (sone ka dil) clear as the water of our
fall.” (The Strange Case of Billy Biswas, 163)
‘mati ke putle’ (bhagya ke haathon ke khilona) mud dolls; i.e. earthen toys
6.5.1.4 Hybrid Idioms / Code Mixed Idioms of Indian Origin: Under this category
those idioms are considered which belong to Indian culture and tradition but are used
with partial translation. They may also be called hybrid idioms; e.g.
“We will soon call the brotherhood of Jats to stop your hookha pani.” (The
Road, 424)
The underlying meaning of ‘to stop (sb) hookha pani’, is ‘to carry out a social boycott of
any person’. As the literal translation ‘to stop hubble- bubble and water’ is incapable to
convey the actual cultural meaning, the writer has used the device of code mixing.
Similarly, the idiom “the sepoy heart” is a hybridized idiom. ‘Sepoy’ (policeman/
soldier) a Hindi/Persian word occurs here with an English word ‘heart’ that means ‘a
heart similar to the heart of a sepoy’ means ‘a hard or strong heart’.
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6.5.1.5 Hindi Assimilated English Idioms: This may also be one of the varieties of
idioms that may also be found in Indian English. In this type, “Hindi assimilates many
English Idioms (Taang khinchna, to pull someone’s leg)….”1; and such Hindi
assimilated English Idioms may be used in between in the writings of Indian English.
“Sir Richard did not know if his leg was being pulled,” (The Great Indian Novel, 128)
Innovative Explanation
Construction
“Gold teeth in the The author has crafted a new saying: “Gold teeth in the mouth of a thief”
mouth of a thief” to satisfy an imaginary situation of his novel ‘Untouchable’. This
(Untouchable, 117) communicates not only the proverbial expression “A straw in the beard
of a thief” but also the prosperity of the thief.
6.5.2 Proverb: Proverbs also bring aesthetic sense to the language. “Any complete,
condensed and compact occasional remark regarding any desirable or undesirable
condition that symbolizes historically preserved and compiled experience, knowledge
or view of the society is known as proverb.”2 It “is a traditional saying that sums up a
situation, passes judgement on a past matter or recommends a course of action for the
future. Some proverbs state a fact.... A proverb consists of at least one topic and at
least one comment about that topic. It can have as few as two words: “Money talks.”
“Time flies.”3 Proverbs are always in form of remark. Several proverbs are in form of
conclusion of the activities of general people. They may also be based on
mythological and historical stories. They may be humorous, motivational, directional
or in the form of some teachings. Sometimes they also prove or discard certain facts.
Sridhar (1983) mentions proverbs as an integral part of oral communication. They are
used on experimental basis, in written discourse by Indian writers. In Indian English
generally five types of proverbs are found. They are as follows:
6.5.2.1 Proverb of Standard English: Indian English writers also employ proverbs
of Standard English as per their needs; e.g.
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“He knew, had known, that one day History’s twisted chickens would come
home to roost” (The God of Small Things, eBook)
“He taught me to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds: he taught me”1
me”1 (The Liar, 19)
Proverbs Meaning
Chicken come home to roost Your past mistakes or wrong doings will
eventually be the cause of present troubles
Running with the hare hunting with the Hypocratic
hounds
6.5.2.2 Indianized Proverbs of Standard English: Indian English users often use
proverbs of Standard English as per their requirement; e.g.:
1 Anand, Mulk Raj. 1945. The Liar. Mulk Raj Anand: A Reader. P.19.
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_wishes_were_horses,_beggars_would_ride
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“What can a dog ‘Kutton ko bhi ‘ignorance of The saying mentioned here
know of the taste of kahee ghee somebody’. presents a mixture of two Hindi
butter” (The Big hazam hota sayings.
Heart, 199) hai?’OR
‘Bandar kya
jane adrak ka
swad’
“Who gave the beak ‘jisne peait “All is well when The Hindi proverb is well
to the bird will also diya hai wo God is in heaven” known; but to give a unique
provide it with food.” khana bhi touch of Indianness and English,
(A Bend in the Ganges) dega’ the writer has modified the
proverb and has replaced
‘stomach’ (peait) with ‘beak’
“He who has the big ‘jiski laathi and added the word ‘bird’ to suit
‘Might is right’
stick will have the uski bhais’ the need of his narration. Slight
buffalo.” (Death of a modification may be seen
Hero: Epitaph for between the basic Hindi proverb
Maqbool Sherwani, 17) and the English translated form.
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“A well-fed man needs religion” (The Big Heart, 155) bhooke pait na hoi bajan Gopala
Explanation: In this type, the writer interlineally wants to communicate that ‘bhare
paiet wale ko hi dharm ki jaroorat hoti hai’. This actually communicates a very
famous Indian saying but in contrastive manner.
By this detailed discussion, it is crystal clear that Indian idioms and proverbs have
provided new horizons to English language. In the above discussion, seven types of
Idioms and five types of proverbs are found through a random selection of Indian
literary corpus. It also helps the Indian writers to maintain the touch of mother tongue
while expressing their thoughts in English language. Other than this, idioms and
proverbs of Indian languages along with that of Standard English, in their various
forms in Indian English, provide new colours, shades and variations to the style of
Indian English writers.
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